Flower Power

Keith took up Flower Arrangement class few weeks ago and is now in his mid term, but he realized it was his passion and even a Way of Life, soon after he started the course.

He decorates his house nicely and artistically with flowers, no wonder I didn't hesitate to appoint him my florist for the wedding!

One Sunday

Met Fumiko-san who was visiting from Jakarta with Kyoko-san and her husband and her 2 lovely little girls at Brewerkz.
But somehow the photos did not turn out!!!

Through Jo who works for the Pacific Beverage, we found a really nice venue for our wedding party called Picotin, which is owned by the celebrity chef on Asian Food Channel, "Chef in Black".
I don't know if anyone who received our Wedding invitation email noticed, but we had Cicada in mind and were pretty fixed on it (or otherwise we won't put it in our invitation ya?)
But through our course of discussing plans with Cicada and the tasting session, we got worried, and finally gave up. For example, for one of the 'finger food', we asked yakitori and they served chicken stake on a skewer...that kind of thing.
So anyway, we went to Picotin with Keith - the organizer/flower arrangement man, Brad - the DJ and Inez my, well, Brides maid if I would.
We were pretty relaxed and enjoying the day, maybe too much.
Keith fell in a pretty deep gutter, and was a laughing stock of kids around there.
5 of us, while we waited for the taxi, bumped into the very own Emmanuel Stroobant a.k.a Chef in Black. Matt started being gay with him and got us to ride his open car to Orchard!
4 people at the back seat is illegal in Singapore, but I guess with this friendly chef driving and Matt next to him, we could have got away with any offense.

Then we went to Cuscaden road's tiny dingy bar for the cheapest beer in town (on Tuesday). And we met 'Nicola Devine' - a Canadian Blues and Jazz singer who a resident singer at Brix.
She was first very fierce and dark but again, with Matt's teasing, she soon became sweet and nice.The closest I got to Alannis Morisette (and she would hate to hear that!) http://www.myspace.com/nicoladevine
Check her out!

Lunch at home and back to Singapore

Mom cooked up Chili Crab, Pork Char Shu with Spinach side, Fried Chicken, Beef Tongue sauteed , and French Fries (which Dad forgot to serve and ate them all by himself for dinner). All the dishes were the Takeya's favourite - and hey! We had them all in one lunch!
Perhaps Mom was still in the Buffet mode? and yes, I know I always forget to take the picture of the food when it's in front of me.
Then there's Dad serving White Wine and he won't serve the beef until we finished the white...
Took out some childhood photos for laughs about my signature mushroom haircut.
Just another family gathering (joined by the Japanese girl tenant up stairs).
Thank you mom for breaking your back to cook all that for us. Thanks dad for the 'hospitality'.

Mom sent us to the airport and Rique was alone at the back seat with Matt and I, two familiar strangers.
Rique has a tendency to quietly accept his fate, when he's faced with an unusual situation. And he did it.
To me, that's so cute.

...this is how we roll...

What does Emi, Matt and I have in common when it comes to time for pleasure?
Drink, Eat and Sing of course.
Drink - Chocolate Martini at Dharmawangsa Hotel and finding out the award winning recipe from the bartender!
Eat - We are all gourmet food lovers, who prefer to sit at the counter and be served. But because we had a substantial buffet lunch earlier, we opt for Italian finger food at Puro.
Sing - finally, someone who can join our secret sister's 80s and 90s only Karaoke session! and he rocks!

Blessings and Prayers

For our short weekend in Jakarta, Mom organized me and Matt to meet our Priest.
Father Clements and my mom's side of the family goes a loooong way. It's amazing how he still remembers all 7 of my aunties and uncles - and their children, even though most of them are no longer in Indonesia for decades. He even remembers Emi's ex and the ex and the ex.... (!).
He was the Priest for my parents' wedding, baptised Emi and I, conducted my previous and now he is blessing and giving Prayers for my up and coming marriage.

To be honest, Matt and I was not expecting "meeting Father Clements when you come to Jakarta" to be such an event when we left Singapore. So having the whole family including Daichan, my aunt Itien and my cousins Rani and Vanda, making time for us was a nice surprise.

Then followed by a celebration buffet lunch at Mulia hotel was also an unexpected indulgence, with Daichan's cousin Hide, sister Aki-san and her husband Yoshi and neighbor Kanzawa-san joining. Food was great, gigantic oysters, one room dedicated to desserts and the rich Arab inspired golden deco was eyes blinding.

Gochisoosama deshita - A'men

Rhys and Idah's Western Wedding Party

And at night, at Bikini bar on Siloso beach Sentosa was their Western wedding - with Alcohol and Pork - thank you.
Matt was appointed to organize the music (which he had been downloading and preparing all week), so we went there around 5ish.
Beautiful and simple decoration, comfort food buffet, funny and at times touching speech from Rhy's friends and dad, great music of course and a fun loving people, the party was a success in my opinion.
I hope the groom and the bride enjoyed themselves too.

Rhys and Idah's Malay Wedding

Rhys - a 24 y.o Welsh boy is getting married to Idah - a 25 y.o Singaporean girl.
Yes, he has given up PORK!!
(...I can never give up Tonkatsu, Gyoza, Bacon and and and....)
And he has also changed his name to Rizwan Abdulla Jones!!
Love really is above everything!

The Malay wedding at Bedok was very real, traditional and grand! Rhys and Idah looked like Prince and Princess of err....Wales and Malay mixed world. Rhys' Father, Mother, Brother, Aunts, 6-7 friends from Wales were visiting the other side of the world for about 2 weeks, preparing for wedding, going to Thailand for Stag nights (Bachelor Night in UK English).
It was quite bizarre to see all these Caucasians under the Bedok HDB flats in this elaborate Malay wedding decoration! It was fun to look at.

Charity Dinner

What was supposed to be a Boys Night of Charity Dinner by the Rugby Association sponsored by Standard Chartered, due to few guys dropping out, at the last minute myself and my 'single' girlfriend was invited to join the dinner party. It's almost impossible to have a single, eligible and up for anything fun girlfriend who arrives on time, with a 2-3 hour notice to a dinner party and is dressed quite appropriate for the occasion! (Joyce is the pretty one with white shirts and black top). The other pretty girl is Daniella, Matt's friend from South Africa.

I guess majority of the guests were male and they were there for 2 guest speakers who's supposed to be famous in the Rugby world... but we were just chatting and drinking...

Next day, Matt, Joyce and I, and probably all 400 people in that room had a headache! damn red wine!

Sisters Trip to Bali

As a birthday gift from Matt to me (Matt had to go to Phuket 10s with his Rugby mates!), he got me a flight to Bali and a 2nights stay in Ubud to spend time with Emi.

We had fun when we were still students, when we were in the 20s and now, well into our 30s, we have just as great time, maybe better, because we are wiser and richer...

Had a lot of fun staring at the painting in the hotel room, which Emi end up buying :) This must be the theme of the trip.... And the the shooting stars....

Caught up with Momo-san who's soaking herself into the local life, made me feel like I too, dipped my toes in the local scene for the first time, in an otherwise very tourist/resort place.

Going back home, we both felt a little guilty for having fun. Thanks Mom for taking care of Rique, thanks Dai-chan for letting Emi go for the whole weekend and thanks Matt for the gift of good memories with my only sister.

Jakarta - pre Hen's weekend!

What a fulfilling weekend it was.

Apart from a 2 hour delay at Changi Airport thus starting the drinking at Harry's...

Then the ridiculously cheap yet full-on whole day spa and massage indulgence...
Eating - is always more than just good, especially with my loud but loving family and extended family...

And a Girls Night Out with obscene amount of sparkling wine and clubbing at Blowfish, ending with private room Karaoke session at moemoe open just for us, surrounded by my favorite girlfriends...

And the highlight of this trip must be the Reiki experience and opening up of Chakra. I felt it man... I felt the master's energy, man...

On the way back, for the first time in a long time, I felt truly contented and grateful for everything.

James Blunt

I know.... But it's JAMES BLUNT!
(Matt's brother or Just like Matt, who just gets more cheer - according to Matt)
James Blunt produced a really good 1st album and a pretty good 2nd album so yes, it was definitely worth it.
He sang all of his hit songs like "HIGH" - what a great song!
He said in his 1st album, he got many reviews from people that "HIGH" is a song of Birth and "Good Bye My Lover" is a song of Death, having both Birth and Death in 1 album.
So he came up with "I'll Take Everything" for his 2nd album, which is a song of Divorce - and he got some laughs.
He sang for about 2hours and even ran over to the audience a bit, played piano/guitar, oh and what a unique voice! It's like wow...
So lucky to have such talent... though his hair was a bit messy and he wasn't as good looking as what I see from the music videos and covers. (Matt's definitely cuter!)

ELTON JOHN & the band

My first concert from a Legend. He came down for a one night performance in Singapore before going to Australia.
Ticket was $475 each, so it's steep for my standard, but if you think that it's Sir Elton John, we will all nod right? What more, now that my better half is English.
And did Matt hesitate? no.Show was supposed to start at 8pm, but at 8:10pm, I was still waiting for Matt to finish a meeting at Millenia Tower. At that point, I gave up going to the concert and was drinking a sorrowful consolation beer downstairs, alone.
But Matt wasn't going to waste his hard earned money for a boring meeting!
He came down and shoved me in a taxi and off we went.
The show didn't start til 8:45 and we managed to have a can of Tiger before it started.Crowd consisted mainly of Caucasians with average age of 40, with a male/female ratio of 1:1.
He sang many old and newer hit songs like 'Sacrifice', 'Sorry seems to be the hardest word', 'Tiny Dancer', 'Candle in the Wind', as well as songs that I would skip in the album like 'Crocodile Rock'.
But anyway, he sang for almost 3 hours with 2 encore songs, I thought that was very generous. And yes, he has a very good voice and he has that diva aura.
Also, thanks to Matt's live energy, we went up close to the stage, danced and held each other and waved arms to 'Don't let the sun go down on me', and I thought that was the sweetest moment.

My New Bike!

For being a good girl (or not?), Matt got me a new bicycle from a bicycle shop in East Coast!
Now I can go cycling with him!

It's so cute and makes me wanna ride my bike all the time!

Cindy and Alexis

Had not seen Cindy since last December. This cheeky busy oil trader girl and her restless boyfriend Alexis invited me and Matt for a BBQ dinner at their house where they moved in 2 months ago.Took Priya who came back to Singapore for the weekend. Matt and I was just looking for a place to move in around that area in the afternoon.
An old but chilled out house with a little garden. So seeing our friend settling down the way we imagined we would, was such an inspiration. It felt like we were meant to go to visit them that night. On that note, it was like a house warming party, but young Alexis is bored of Singapore and wants to work in Bali. I'd offer my help whatever I can as I know, this other power couple will do just fine wherever they go.

Sachiko

She came to Singapore for visa and I met up with her for the first time in 15 years.
She went to the wrong train station where we were supposed to meet and we delayed our supposedly amazing meeting, went out for drinks and got pretty high and loud, made me and my friends laugh, went back to my place for more drinks and decided to sleep over, next day she could not function well until 3pm, started having too much fun and almost missed her flight!

Being with her for 1 day and a half, I can say - That's the Sachiko I know.

Just hanging out

Iain left to China for work - we hope he will be happy and succeed, but we also think and kind of hope he will be back soon...